Session 3

Well, folks, it's been really enjoyable today. I've gotten to know folks I hadn't met before, and I've reconnected with others who I have.

So I'd like just to speak to you from that passage, both passages, really.

But if you start, if you look with me at Matthew chapter 9, if I use the illustration of a sandwich earlier to look at the Great Commission,

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

for those of us who are a bit older, if I could use the illustration of a television.

Now, those of us who remember television before cable, that you had to adjust the television set,

and you had to adjust the television set in two different ways.

You had the horizontal, because you didn't really want your TV to go up and down like that.

So you wanted the picture to stay, and you also had to adjust the vertical so it was kind of in the center of the screen.

Maybe I might have got those wrong, but if we keep that in mind, the television, the horizontal and the vertical,

Jesus here is ministering.

Now, in a sense, the ministry of Jesus is unique.

He does things we can't do.

He has power.

He has authority.

He has the capacity that we don't.

But if you look at this passage, we hear in Matthew chapter 9 that Jesus encounters people who are sick.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

They're afflicted.

They're harassed.

They're helpless.

They're very vulnerable.

They're described as sheep without a shepherd.

Now, Jesus then turns to his disciples and says,

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

So, one key to our mission, one key to ministry,

and each one of us has ministry.

Each one of us is on a mission.

It begins with how you see.

Now, my afternoon activity, I went into the pool and into the sauna, the whirlpool.

Great.

But one problem with that is I have to take my glasses off, and I can't really see anything.

So, I was surrounded by people, and I'm sorry, do I know who is this, Paul?

I can't really see you clearly, but you look like.

But when I put my glasses back on, I can see things clearly.

Jesus sees harassed and helpless and vulnerable and sick and afflicted people,

and he concludes that the harvest is plentiful.

What do we conclude when we see the same thing?

Do we conclude that today is a day of opportunity?

Today is a day where the Lord has placed us exactly where he wants us to be

and exactly where we want to be.

There are so many people who don't know about Jesus.

Isn't that a great opportunity?

There are so many people who don't have the first idea.

So, it all depends upon your perception, your point of view.

A couple books that I'm going to commend to you.

If you like small books, short books, two books by Roger Carswell.

If you're called to preach, or if you ever have the opportunity to preach,

definitely purchase, this is from the publishing house, ten of them,

evangelistic preaching.

Very short book, very good.

The book I'm going to quote from now is called,

And Some Evangelists.

That passage from Ephesians chapter 4,

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

where the Apostle Paul is describing the various offices within the church.

But Carswell is great because he takes examples from history about what evangelism looks like.

And he takes us back 250 years.

And we're told that a man called John Wesley traveled for the first time to Newcastle.

And he entered this in his journal.

At this juncture, Roger Carswell interrupts the narrative and says,

Our natural reaction would be to complete the sentence by words such as hell or judgment.

But Wesley saw things differently.

Surely this place is ripe for him who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

I don't know about you, but I find that there's a lot of sinners in the city of Edinburgh.

There's a lot of sinners who are in need of repentance.

And if that's the message in the ministry of Jesus,

then it does seem like God has placed us in the right place at the right time with the right message.

But do we look at people the same way that Jesus looks at people?

Do we look at people with compassion?

Do we look at people with concern?

Do we look at people and want to do something for them

that will benefit them in time and in eternity?

So is there a love?

And this is where we have the horizontal, our horizontal relationships.

Is there a love that we have for people?

And that can take many different forms.

So we can show compassion, concern for their physical well-being,

their emotional well-being.

But as Christians, surely we have a care for people's spiritual well-being,

where they will be for the rest of eternity.

So John Wesley goes into Newcastle, and we're told,

as that passage continues in his journal,

he said he began by singing.

He chose a place on one of the street corners in Newcastle.

He began singing Psalm 100,

All People That On Earth Do Dwell.

He said within a few moments, a couple hundred people gathered.

They were quite curious to see what was happening.

And he said, my name is John Wesley,

and I will preach to you the gospel, the good news concerning Jesus Christ.

And thousands of people in those few days came to hear Wesley preach

the good news concerning Jesus Christ.

Another book I want to commend to you is,

this is the most recent of many biographies,

but this is Kevin Belmonte, D.L. Moody,

innovator, evangelist, world changer.

Now, Moody, great quotation from Moody.

He said, if this world is going to be reached,

I am convinced that it must be done by men and women of average talent.

After all, there are comparatively few people in the world who have great talents.

So, if we can take for granted that there are many people in the city of Edinburgh

who are sinners in need of repentance,

and that we as Christians have the one and the only message of salvation

found in the one and the only Savior of the world that,

remember those words from John chapter 4,

John 4 · chapter mention

the Samaritans came to believe for themselves by speaking with Jesus

that he is indeed the Savior of the world.

If that's true of the city of Edinburgh,

I think what Moody is getting at here is true of this room,

that I'm speaking to a room of men and women

with average, ordinary talents.

There may be some extraordinary people here,

and if there are, by all means,

use your extraordinary gifts and talents.

But if this world is going to be reached,

God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.

The first scene of this book,

this was written by a man called William Reynolds.

He was a gospel worker in Chicago,

and in the very early career of D.L. Moody,

he encountered this new young man who had come from the East.

And this was his impression.

He said, the first meeting I ever saw Moody

was in the little old shanty abandoned by a saloon keeper.

You see, Moody set up shop in Chicago,

and he set up a Sabbath school.

You see, he wasn't a minister.

He wasn't the Reverend D.L. Moody.

He was always Mr. Moody.

And if he was asked to describe himself,

he would describe himself as a Sabbath school worker from Chicago.

And the Sabbath school at that particular juncture

was in a district of Chicago known as Little Hell,

which gives you an idea of the clientele.

But he said,

I saw a man standing up with a few tallow candles around him,

holding a Negro boy and trying to read him the story of the prodigal son.

A great many of the words he could not make out and had to skip.

I thought, if the Lord can ever use such an instrument as that,

it will astonish me.

After that meeting was over, Moody said,

Reynolds, I have only got one talent.

I have no education,

but I love the Lord Jesus Christ,

and I want to do something for him.

So if you think of that television with the vertical and the horizontal,

can we agree that we love the Lord Jesus

and that we want to do something for him?

And can we likewise agree that we love people

and we want to do something for them?

So if you have these two perspectives,

the vertical relationship with God through Jesus,

and we love Jesus,

we love him because he first loved us.

And we have a love and a compassion for people

because we realize that they are just where we once were.

They don't know or they haven't heard.

Nobody's taking the time.

Nobody's made the effort to tell or to share or to show.

And whether it's youth work in the north of Edinburgh,

whether it's prayer ministry in Midlothian,

whether it's running a Christianity Explored

or an outreach event in Costa Coffee in Brunsfield,

the venue, the circumstance is secondary.

But if those two loves are there,

love to God, love through Christ,

and love to people,

then God will use you and me

to accomplish his plan and his purpose.

Let me just give you an insight into this man called D.L. Moody.

D.L. Moody was not well educated.

He left school at the age of 10,

fourth grade, maybe third grade.

He left school at a young age.

And when he came to Boston,

before he went to Chicago,

he went to Boston,

his desire was to make a fortune.

And he was one of the best shoe salesmen

that Boston and then later Chicago ever saw.

He had a natural way with people.

He began attending a local YMCA.

And he attended a Sunday school class.

And his Sunday school teacher

was a man called Edward Kimball.

Now, Kimball described Moody in these ways.

He says,

Now, if you're a parent with a child

and the Sunday school teacher gives a report

and says,

This was the man D.L. Moody.

of not only coming to know,

let alone coming to serve in any meaningful way.

This was the man D.L. Moody.

Uneducated,

untrained.

He was brought up in a Unitarian household.

Unitarians do not believe in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

They don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God

or the Savior of the world.

And yet, D.L. Moody came to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

And he described his conversion in this way.

He said,

It was the love of God that broke my heart years ago.

And it was the love of God that he preached

and shared from that time forward.

Now, I said that in many ways,

D.L. Moody is an ordinary person.

Well, he's extraordinary.

It's estimated that he personally led

70,000 people to faith.

One of his great gifts was personal evangelism,

one-to-one evangelism,

speaking to people about their souls.

It was said that people would say of D.L. Moody,

he spoke to me as if my soul mattered.

On a train,

in the streets,

he made it a personal commitment

that he would speak to at least one person

every day

before he went to bed.

One of the early biographies of Moody

was simply described,

Love the Men,

the Life and Theology of D.L. Moody.

And he said this,

If you can really make a man believe

that you love him,

you have won him.

We might not have

the depth of theology

or the depth of understanding.

We might not be able to answer the objections

or answer the questions.

But if you have a genuine love for Jesus

and a genuine love for people,

just wait to see what God can do.

Just wait to see how God can use you

or use me.

Not because of who we are,

but because of whom we serve.

Of who we introduce people to.

So this man of fourth grade education,

this man came in his lifetime.

He was converted.

He began attending the YMCA

at the age of 17.

He became a Christian

at the age of 18.

And interesting,

this same Kimball.

Kimball's Sunday school class,

he was saying to himself,

he said,

he felt that not one member

of his Sunday school class

was a Christian,

had come to a faith in Jesus.

And as a Sunday school teacher,

this vexed him.

This concerned him.

He felt that he had to do something.

So he was committed

to speak to each member of his class.

So if you're here

and you're working

and serving within the youth ministry,

the Sunday school ministry,

North Edinburgh,

wherever it might be,

and sometimes you feel

as if you're making no impact,

or if your efforts,

your prayers,

your teaching is in vain.

Listen to this scene.

Kimball said,

I determined to speak to him

about Christ and about his soul.

So he went down to Holton's shoe store,

where Moody was working.

When I was nearly there,

I began to wonder

whether I ought to go in

just then during business hours.

I thought that possibly my call

might embarrass the boy.

And that when I went away,

the other clerks might ask who I was

and taunt him with my efforts

of trying to make him a good boy.

In the meantime,

I had passed the store

and discovering this,

I determined to make a dash for it

and have it over at once.

I found Moody in the back part

of the building wrapping up shoes.

I went up to him at once,

putting my hand on his shoulder.

I made what I afterward thought

was a very weak plea for Christ.

I don't know just what words I used,

nor could Mr. Moody tell.

I simply told him of Christ's love for him

and the love that Christ wanted in return.

There's a theme here, isn't there?

That that was all there was.

It seemed the young man

was just ready for the light

that then broke upon him.

And there, in the back of the store in Boston,

he gave himself and his life to Christ.

It's estimated that in his ministry,

he lived to the age of 62,

he became a Christian at the age of 18,

that he personally preached

to 100 million people.

He was persuaded that God was calling him

and his generation to reach their generation,

the whole of their generation,

for Jesus.

Now, we will have to say

that they did not succeed

in reaching their whole generation

by the end of the 19th century.

The work still goes on.

But 100 million is not a bad start

for someone with a fourth grade education.

He came to the United Kingdom

on several journeys,

but his first trip was in 1872,

and he did not come as a preacher.

He was not advertised.

He was little known.

But he was invited to a church

in North London.

And just to give you a flavor

of these early years,

he said when Moody preached in the morning,

he felt there was a dullness

or a heaviness.

He then preached that evening.

He said it could not have been

more radically different.

It seemed as if the very atmosphere

was charged with the Spirit of God.

There was a hush from heaven

upon the people,

and by his own admission,

he hadn't been much in prayer that day.

And as was his custom,

he concluded his sermon

by asking any

who wished to become Christians

to rise,

and so he could pray for them.

Almost all at once,

scores of people stood.

It seemed like the whole audience

had risen.

Moody thought,

they must not have understood me.

They didn't know what I meant

when I gave an invitation

for seekers to stand.

Surely,

that is what has just happened.

So he thought to put the invitation

more clearly,

and repeated it.

All those who want to become Christians,

he said,

just step into the inquiry room.

At this,

most of the sanctuary emptied.

Virtually everyone present

went to the inquiry room.

There were so many people

that extra chairs

had to be brought in.

Neither the local minister

nor Moody could believe it.

They had never seen

God saved by hundreds.

Once more,

Moody thought he had been misunderstood.

He asked those that really wanted

to become Christians

to rise.

Again,

the whole audience stood.

Moody truly had no idea

what to do,

so again,

he played it safe

and told all those

who were really in earnest

to meet the pastor there

the next night.

By that evening,

he was in Dublin.

Over the next week,

400 people were added

to that church

as members.

What does this say?

This says that God

takes instruments

of ordinary ability

but uses them

in an extraordinary capacity.

Why?

Because there is a powerful

and a palpable love.

A love that Moody had

for his Savior Jesus

and a love that Moody had

for people.

How can we translate this love

into our own circumstance?

How can we take the love

that we have for Jesus?

Jesus.

Because we do love Jesus.

We love him for who he is.

We love him for what he has done.

We love him because he first loved us.

And we love people.

We love our families.

We love our friends.

We love our neighbors.

We love the people in Brunsfield.

We love our friends.

We love our great care

and our great concern

is so many people

do not know the same Jesus.

That they do not love the same Jesus.

That they are not aware

of his love for them.

So,

as Jesus sees

these harassed

and helpless people,

as he sees these sick

and afflicted people,

he asks us to do two things.

He says,

the harvest is plentiful,

but the laborers are few.

So,

he asks us to focus our vision

on what we see,

to see what we see.

And then he says,

pray.

Therefore,

pray earnestly

to the Lord of the harvest

to send out laborers

into his harvest.

The scene

from later

in Moody's ministry.

He was in London

at the time

and several local clergymen

asked to meet with him.

Vickers in the Church of England.

They wanted to know

why this poorly educated American

was so effective

in winning people

to Christ.

And they said,

Mr. Moody,

can you explain this to us?

And at that point,

he took the men

to the window

of the hotel room

where they were meeting.

And he asked them

what they saw

as they looked out the window.

And one by one,

the men described the people

in the park below.

Then one of them stopped

and said,

Mr. Moody,

what do you see?

And he said,

I see countless

thousands of souls

that will one day

spend eternity

in hell

if they do not

find the Savior.

They saw the same scene.

They were looking

at the same park.

They were observing

the same people.

And yet,

this man saw something

that they didn't see.

And what he saw

moved him to tears,

moved him to prayer,

moved him to preach,

moved him to witness.

Each one of you

has people

in your life,

unique circles

of people

that you have

relationships with,

friendships with,

rapport with,

people that you can

talk to,

people that you can

talk with,

people that you can

pray for,

people that you can

pray with.

Now, you might never

have the opportunity

of preaching

in a pulpit.

You may never have

an opportunity

of preaching

to a multitude.

But what would

Edinburgh be like

if each one of us

witnessed to the

gospel to the

closest five people

in our family group,

our friends group?

If we committed

to pray that God

would speak to their

heart?

What would happen

if one by one,

ten by ten,

hundred by hundred,

what would happen

if we saw God work

in the city of Edinburgh?

As he has in the past

and as he can do

in the future.

And where men and

women, young and old,

people who have no

connection with any

church, let alone

your church or my

church, where they

meet with followers

of Jesus and they

meet with passionate

people who have a

passionate love for

their Savior Jesus

and a passionate love

for them as people.

And we pray

and we witness

and we seek to

demonstrate the love

that we have

for Jesus Christ.

At the end of

Moody's life,

he was 62 years

of age,

he had what

we would describe

as congestive

heart failure.

He was a large

man and his heart

simply gave up.

It was November

the 16th,

1899,

not long before

the end

of the century.

He chose a passage

to preach from

Luke's gospel,

Luke chapter 14,

Luke 14 · chapter mention

the parable of the

great banquet.

It was the last time

he ever preached.

He was in Kansas

City and he said

this, he said,

many of you will get

up and go out

of this hall,

making light

of the preacher,

laughing at

everything you

have heard,

paying no attention

to the invitation.

I beg of you,

do not make light

of this invitation.

It is a loving God

that invites you.

He painted

one last word picture.

What would it be

like, he wondered,

if everyone there

that night were

to accept

heaven's invitation?

What words

would they say?

Perhaps

they would run

something like this.

to the king of heaven,

while sitting in

the convention hall

on November the

16th, 1899,

I received a

pressing invitation

from one of your

servants to be

present at the

marriage supper

of your only

begotten son.

I hastened to

reply, by the

grace of God,

I will be

present.

It's an

interesting

coincidence.

The last sermon

that D.L.

Moody preached

on the parable

of the great

banquet,

compelled them

to come in,

was the most

effective sermon

by his own

estimation that

C.S.C.H.

Spurgeon ever

preached.

Spurgeon was a

much different

preacher than

Moody.

He was a

settled preacher

of a settled

congregation.

If you like

statistics,

during Spurgeon's

37 years at the

Metropolitan

Tabernacle in

the New Park

Street Pulpit

in London,

14,000 members

were added to

the church.

church.

And in

1858, when

the Metropolitan

Tabernacle was

being rebuilt,

the New Park

Street Church

was too

small, he

preached in

the Surrey

Gardens, the

largest place

to gather for

anything in the

United Kingdom

at that time.

It could seat

12,000 people.

And he

preached the

sermon from

Luke's gospel,

Luke chapter

Luke 14 · chapter mention

14.

And listen to

the same

passion that

comes through

from a servant

on this side

of the Atlantic.

He would have

preached with a

much different

accent than

Moody, yet

Moody and

Spurgeon were

close personal

friends.

Spurgeon says

this, he said,

and now again

is it all in

vain.

Will you not

now come to

Christ?

What more can

I do?

I have but

one more

resort, and

that shall be

tried.

I shall be

permitted to

weep for you.

I can be

allowed to

pray for you.

You shall

scorn the

address if you

like.

You shall

laugh at the

preacher.

You shall

call him a

fanatic if you

will.

He will not

chide you.

He will bring

no accusation

against you to

the great judge.

Your offense,

so far as he

is concerned,

is forgiven

before it is

committed.

But you will

remember that

the message that

you are rejecting

this morning is

a message from

one who loves

you, and it

is given to

you by the

lips of one

who loves you.

And you will

recollect that

you may play

your soul away

with the devil,

that you may

listlessly think

it a matter of

no importance.

But there lives

at least one who

is in earnest

about your soul,

and one who

before he came

here wrestled

with his God

for strength

to preach to

you, and who

will, when he

has gone from

this place, will

not forget his

hearers this

morning.

I love the

Lord Jesus

Christ, and I

want to do

something for

him.

Loving them

in.

Loving people.

Loving Jesus.

Loving the

Jesus that

saved us.

Wanting to

introduce the

Jesus who

saved us to

men and

women, boys

and girls,

young and old,

of bringing

this message,

of bringing

this Jesus.

Moody often

said that

doctrines were

important, that

creeds were

important, but

he said this,

doctrines are

all right in

their places, but

when you put

them in the

place of faith

or salvation,

they become

sin.

If a man

should ask me

to his house

to dinner

tomorrow, the

street would

be a very good

thing to take

me to his

house, but if

I didn't get

into the

house, I

wouldn't get

any dinner.

Now a

creed is a

road or a

street.

It's very

good as far

as it goes,

but if it

doesn't take

us to

Christ, it

is worthless.

By contrast,

he said this,

as a rule I

have had for

years is to

treat the

Lord Jesus

Christ as a

personal friend.

His is not a

creed, a mere

doctrine, but it

is he himself

that we have.

And if there's

one thing that

this world

needs, if it's

one thing that

the 17,000

people groups

in this world

needs, if there's

one thing that

the city of

Edinburgh

needs, if it's

one thing that

the people of

Brunsfield need,

if it's one

thing that your

family needs, if

it's one thing

that your friends

need, if it's

one thing the

people that you

work with need,

if it's one thing

that the people

you live next

door to need,

they need him.

They need Jesus.

They need his

grace.

They need his

forgiveness.

They need his love.

They need his compassion.

And we may be the only people in their lives that have Jesus to share with them.

God is never limited.

God can work with us or without us.

But God has chosen to use us, ordinary instruments in his hands,

to accomplish extraordinary work.

Whether it's through servants who go to the ends of the earth.

Whether it's to those who stand in pulpits and proclaim Jesus.

Or whether it's you and me who sit down over a cup of coffee

to listen, to share, to tell, to show the love that we have for Jesus

and the love that we have for people.

We need to pray.

We need to speak.

We need to serve.

We love Jesus.

And we simply want to do something for him.

May God bless you as a church.

May God bless you individually.

Members of families.

May God use you wherever you are, whoever you are,

that you might commend this Jesus.

The Jesus that you love.

That you might commend this Jesus to the people that you love.

And that you might commend the people that you love to Jesus.

Praying that he would open eyes that are blind.

That he would change hearts that are dead.

That he would transform lives.

So that his name would be praised.

So that his kingdom would be extended.

And that his church would grow.

May God bless us.

And may God bless you all.

Good day.

Good day.

Good day.

Good day.

Good day.

Good day.

Good day.

Good day.

Good day.

Good day.